In honour of Aardman’s upcoming new release, October’s Halloweenish Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, we’ve a whole bunch of the studio’s classics coming our way for another round in the cinema.
Chicken Run, Flushed Away and (one of my favourites, despite its wordy title) The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists! are all still to come in the weeks ahead. For now, though, we’ve a cosy double bill of Wallace and Gromit to keep us entertained.
This hour-long release pairs 1995’s A Close Shave with 2008’s A Matter of Loaf And Death, offering two for the price of one when it comes to the nation’s favourite cheese-loving inventor’s romantic trials and tribulations. I think it’s safe to say that neither the man nor the dog need any introduction – as British people, I feel like a general understanding of Wallace and Gromit is just something that’s programmed into us at birth, alongside a knack for queuing and the full lyrics to Mr Brightside. If you really do need the cliffnotes, though, I can say that one of them’s an inventive, capable and cunning mind who endeavours to rescue his sidekick from the perils of hapless naïveté at every turn, and the other one’s mad about cheese.
‘Come over here, lad. No need to be sheepish’
Close Shave sees the plucky pair running their own window-cleaning business with help from Wallace’s wacky and uniformly temperamental inventions. Determined to climb the blinkin’ ladder of their industry, things get interesting when an otherwise routine job for local wool peddler Wendolene Ramsbottom sets them on a collision course with the papers’ reports of a mysterious sheep rustler. Scored like a true noir by Julian Nott, who delivers on intrigue with each ever more dire headline, this is tough case to solve, with dangers for both man and dog.
And what noir would be complete without a dame in distress? Wendolene fits that bill very well, if you’re able to overlook the fact that Wallace’s taste in women boils down to his exact face and head shape with a little brunette bob on the top. It’s silly stuff, for sure, and the film plays things up with a grandiose orchestral love theme as the two fall for each other, one of many knowing winks in this brilliant little half-hour burst of sight gags and quintessential Britishness.
If that wasn’t enough, it also marks the first appearance of Shaun the Sheep (the myth, the legend, you name it) whose own legacy brought us an entire CBBC show (a breakfast staple in my house), a spin-off and a film career of his own. His origin story here justifies this pick over 1993’s The Wrong Trousers, which is still the gold-standard when it comes to Lancashire-based aventures, and one can only wonder what trouble Shaun and the flock will be getting into come October.
The gags continue with Noughties entry A Matter of Loaf and Death, which goes all-out on pulpiness right from its title card. Another business; another beauty…this outing has our favourite entrepreneurs in their prime, operating a baking empire from their little house-turned-windmill. Their venture, Top Bun, is surely their most profitable yet, with the pair slinging their goods at top speed, part of their dough to door delivery promise. They ought to be careful, though – a serial killer seems to have a particular grudge against bakers, with twelve dead in a short time. If Wallace doesn’t use his loaf, he could well be lucky number thirteen…
Quite coincidentally, he manages to start a love affair with Piella Bakewell, the classic pin-up of his favourite bread brand. Accompanied by her demure little dog Fluffles, she turns the boys’ house upside down, packing it full of pink and flowers. Gromit, meanwhile, has his doubts about the couple’s burgeoning romance and fun antics come thick and fast as result.
Both shorts are fantastically funny, and seeing both of these for the first time in about a decade felt like a whole new experience, what with the amount of sight gags and punny dialogue. There are genuine laugh-out-loud moments in both and I’d be hard pressed to pick one over the other for a favourite – these are just two very strong Wallace and Gromit outings to catch with family, friends or both. Yes, you could very well see them at home for free – they’re both available on BBC iPlayer along with the full selection of Wallace and Gromit material – but at a hefty discount (our very own Cineworld Edinburgh is charging £2 a pop), this is a breezy little nostalgia trip made all the better for being up on the big screen.
BBFC: A Close Shave is rated U for very mild threat, violence.
A Matter of Loaf and Death is rated PG for mild threat, violence.
Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave & A Matter of Loaf and Death Double Bill is in cinemas now.
